I first met Brooke Williams back in the mid 1980’s when I worked with his wife Terry Tempest Williams at the Utah Museum of Natural History. The three of us became good friends in part because we shared a passion for wilderness and wild critters and appreciated the importance of education in spreading the word and the passion. And we just liked each other’s company.<\/p>\n
As the years passed both Terry and Brooke became acclaimed authors, educators and environmental activists, first moving to Castle Valley near Moab, Utah and now splitting their time between Castle Valley and Cambridge, Massachusetts where Terry teaches at Harvard. Brooke spent a significant portion of his conservation career with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) and now teaches at Colby College in Maine. So for many years we mostly lost touch with each other.<\/p>\n
Then completely out of the blue in July of 2012 I ran into them again in the middle of the Montana wilderness where they, along with wilderness advocate and grizzly bear expert Doug Peacock and author and environmental activist Rick Bass, were involved in teaching graduate students for the University of Utah’s Environmental Humanities Institute. We had a joyous reunion on the porch of a rustic old cabin involving wine, lots of old stories and laughter. I’ve only seen Brooke and Terry once since then.<\/p>\n
Until yesterday when I had a completely unexpected encounter with Brooke.<\/p>\n
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After spending the early part of the morning being completely bird-skunked at Farmington Bay WMA I decided on a whim to stop in and see my friend Billy Fenimore, manager of the nearby Eccles Wildlife Education Center. I could see the staff was busily preparing for some important event and I didn’t want to interfere so I was preparing to leave when Billy told me they were hosting the 29th annual Utah Society for Environmental Education Conference at the center which would begin at 9:30. Billy handed me a printed program for the conference and asked me to look it over in case there was anything scheduled I might be interested in attending. He also said that “breakfast” would be served and I was hungry so I looked it over.<\/p>\n
Lo and behold, one of the keynote speakers was Brooke Williams and his presentation was scheduled for 11 AM.<\/p>\n
Hell yes I stuck around!<\/p>\n
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This photo was taken in the Wildlife Center Auditorium at the beginning of the conference before Brooke’s presentation. Here we see only about a third of the participants, the rest of them are out of frame to the right. And yes, some of those bird prints on the walls are mine.<\/p>\n
I love seeing the Wildlife Education Center being used like this. Besides teaching educators and other professionals in the state of the art auditorium they also have a classroom with attached wet lab so school kids on field trips can get “down and dirty” with real environmental science. The Wildlife Center hosts field trips galore from school districts all over the state and elsewhere. They have a staff that loves what they do and they’re very good at it. This retired biology and zoology teacher is duly impressed.<\/p>\n
I knew Brooke would be busy with “meet and greet” and setting up his presentation when he walked in so selfishly I ambushed him outside in the parking lot.<\/p>\n
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We had another joyous reunion out there. Eventually he suggested we walk over to the far northwest corner of the lot so we had a better chance to catch up without interruption and so he could get a better view of the layout of the facility which was new to him. He follows my blog so he got a kick out of the fact that some of the photos I’ve posted to Feathered Photography were taken of birds perched in the greasewood bushes directly behind him.<\/p>\n
He also enjoyed seeing the Great Blue Heron rookery hidden behind the greasewood in this photo and he spotted a Red-tailed Hawk perched on one of the heron nest platforms.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/brooke-and-ron-selfie-b.jpg\" "\\"brooke-and-ron-selfie\\"")
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Two old friends enjoying each other’s company after a lapse of too many years. We jawboned and told old stories for about 20 minutes before he had to go inside for his presentation. I don’t do selfies but Brooke suggested it so he took this photo with my phone. I look like pretty goofy squinting into the sun but I went with it anyway.<\/p>\n
And yes, I stayed until noon so I could hear Brooke’s entire presentation. As expected it was excellent.<\/p>\n
My admiration for folks like Brooke and Terry Tempest Williams and their friends Tim DeChristopher<\/a> and Doug Peacock<\/a> runs deep. Each has knowingly and willingly paid a steep personal price for their convictions and they do it for the planet, for all of us and because it’s the right thing to do.<\/p>\n All four are on my short list of living environmental heroes.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sorry folks, no birds today. This post is personal. Another apology for the quality of the following photos. I like to think I’m pretty skillful with a DSLR camera and big honkin’ lens but I’m a complete doofus with cell phones and it shows. I first met Brooke Williams back in the mid 1980’s when I worked with his wife Terry Tempest Williams at the Utah Museum of Natural History. The three of us became good friends in part because we shared a passion for wilderness and wild critters and appreciated the importance of education in spreading the word and the passion. And we just liked each other’s company. As the years passed both Terry and Brooke became acclaimed authors, educators and environmental activists, first moving to Castle Valley near Moab, Utah and now splitting their time between Castle Valley and Cambridge, Massachusetts where Terry teaches at Harvard. Brooke spent a significant portion of his conservation career with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) and now teaches at Colby College in Maine. So for many years we mostly lost touch with each other. Then completely out of the blue in July of 2012 I ran into them again in the middle of the Montana wilderness where they, along with wilderness advocate and grizzly bear expert Doug Peacock and author and environmental activist Rick Bass, were involved in teaching graduate students for the University of Utah’s Environmental Humanities Institute. We had a joyous reunion on the porch of a rustic old cabin involving wine, lots of…<\/p>\n